Cups of Gold Stoic and Tenacious!

If you can get your hands on some seed packets of the California poppy and show the picture of the golden, cup-shaped flowers on them to a kid, chances are great that the answer would be a positive ‘yes!’, and in two ticks you will have happy and excited company in the garden to help you to sow the seed.

What you need to know:

• Eschscholzia californica seed can be sown year-round, and if you do so quickly before winter comes, you will have the pleasure of masses of flowers in spring and summer.

• The California poppy loves full sun and poor soil of the sandy and rocky kind, with very good drainage.

• The seed must be sown in situ no more than 2mm deep in loosened soil, as these plants have deep taproots and do not tolerate transplanting. They need no pampering once germinated, except water to keep them going.

• Spacing between seeds should be 20 x 20cm and germination is between 7 – 14 days, with another 90 – 100 days to flower.

• Although California poppies are classified as short-lived perennials (they tend to go dormant in adverse growing conditions – too much heat, cold or water), they are mostly treated as annuals with a self-seeding habit, so they tend to stay with you.